Animal cognitive test ‘can predict successful insulin self-injections’

By Editor
7th September 2017
Older people, Research

A test involving remembering animal names can help to predict whether older people will be successful in mastering insulin self-injections, research has shown.

Japanese researchers carried out a study on 57 older people who all had type 2 diabetes about to start insulin therapy.

They were all asked to carry out the same test which involved naming as many animals as they could within one minute.

The team, which was led by Taichi Minami from the Yokohama City University in Japan, found the number of animal names recalled was the most reliable predictor of the ability to acquire the insulin self-injection technique within one week.

They say remembering 11 animal names predicted a successful acquisition, with a sensitivity of 73 per cent and a specificity of 91 per cent (area under the curve, 0.87; P < 0.01).

The authors concluded: “To our knowledge, no studies have reported that cognitive tests can be used to evaluate whether or not people can acquire the insulin self-injection technique.”

The findings have been published in the Journal of Diabetes Investigation. To read the research, click here.

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